Following the ban on social gatherings and lockdown affecting tertiary institutions, the Osun State University (UNIOSUN), on Wednesday, held the ‘first-ever’ virtual matriculation ceremony in Nigeria for fresh students.
The university made use of Google Meet, a video communication service developed by Google. It is one of two applications that constitute the new version of Google Hangouts, the other being Google Chat.
While top officials of the institution sitting in the Olagunsoye Oyinlola Auditorium of the main campus of the University, the matriculated students joined using Google meet from their respective homes.
The institution matriculated 3,338 students across all departments with the breakdown as follows: 76 students in the College of Agriculture, 186 in the College of Education, 454 in the College of Health Sciences, 588 students in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, and 442 in the College of Management and Social Sciences.
Also, 391 students were matriculated in the College of Humanities and Culture and 87 students in the College of Law.
The oath of Matriculation was read by the University Registrar, Gafar Ayodeji. For submission of the oath, the matriculated students were asked to scan and send a signed copy of the matriculation oath form via their official University electronic mail address to the institution for documentation.
Speaking afterward, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Labode Popoola, urged the fresh students to be law-abiding and shun all forms of cultism.
“I urge you all to be law-abiding, align with the vision of the University, committed to learning, and stay clear of cultism and any other social vices so as to be successful as a student of this University.
“We like to place it on record that in spite of the impacts of the global pandemic, we at Uniosun are resolved to focus on our pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, and service to society as enshrined in our vision and what we have done today is to set the pace for other tertiary institutions in Nigeria,” he said.
For more than two months, all academic activities in most institutions in the country have been shut down following the rise in cases of Coronavirus. Currently, the country has recorded a total of 4,971 cases.
